SNL Season 52 Cast: Who's New, Who Left and Who Anchors Weekend Update
The SNL Season 52 cast has 17 members: 10 repertory players and seven featured players, by NBC's list. Two of them are new this fall, Saidah Belo-Osagie and Grace Reiter. Chloe Fineman is gone, and Michael Che and Colin Jost are still behind the Weekend Update desk.
Season 52 opened on Sept. 26, 2026. The table has everyone NBC lists, the tier each person is in, and how many seasons they've been in the cast.
| Cast member | Status | Seasons in the cast, counting Season 52 |
|---|---|---|
| Michael Che | Repertory · Weekend Update anchor | 13 |
| Mikey Day | Repertory | 11 |
| Andrew Dismukes | Repertory | 7 |
| Marcello Hernández | Repertory | 5 |
| James Austin Johnson | Repertory | 6 |
| Colin Jost | Repertory · Weekend Update anchor | 14 |
| Ashley Padilla | Repertory (moved up from featured) | 3 |
| Sarah Sherman | Repertory | 6 |
| Kenan Thompson | Repertory | 24 |
| Jane Wickline | Repertory (moved up from featured) | 3 |
| Saidah Belo-Osagie | Featured · new | 1 |
| Tommy Brennan | Featured | 2 |
| Jeremy Culhane | Featured | 2 |
| Ben Marshall | Featured | 2 |
| Kam Patterson | Featured | 2 |
| Grace Reiter | Featured · new | 1 |
| Veronika Slowikowska | Featured | 2 |
The season counts follow NBC's cast page. Belo-Osagie and Reiter show a 1 because Season 52 is their first, and the five featured players with a 2 all joined in Season 51.
Who are the new SNL cast members in Season 52?
Saidah Belo-Osagie and Grace Reiter. Both came in as featured players, and both were on screen in the Sept. 26 premiere that Jalen Brunson hosted. TheWrap reported the two hires on Sept. 16, ten days before that first show.
NBC describes Belo-Osagie as a Brooklyn-based comedian who created the solo show "Saidah Gets Closure." Reiter is from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, and built her audience with comedy videos online. NBC also notes that she made videos with Jane Wickline years before either of them was hired.
Nobody else is new. All five featured players who joined in Season 51 are back: Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Ben Marshall, Kam Patterson and Veronika Slowikowska.
Who left SNL before Season 52?
Chloe Fineman. She announced in July that she was leaving, and TheWrap counts seven seasons for her. She joined in Season 45.
Bowen Yang, who was hired the same year as Fineman, is also absent from the Season 52 list, though his exit came earlier. NBC says he left partway through Season 51 after six and a half seasons.
One change happened off camera. Martin Herlihy, a writer and one third of Please Don't Destroy, left over the summer as well, per TheWrap. His partner in that group, Ben Marshall, is still in the cast as a featured player.
Who anchors Weekend Update on SNL?
Michael Che and Colin Jost. They've shared the desk since 2014, and NBC calls them the longest-running Weekend Update duo the show has had. Each has passed the mark Seth Meyers once held.
Both are also repertory players. Jost has been a writer at the show since 2005, and Che started as a writer in 2013, a year before he moved in front of the camera.
Who was promoted to repertory player this season?
Ashley Padilla and Jane Wickline. They were hired together as featured players in 2024, for Season 50, and Season 52 is their third year. NBC now lists both with the repertory players, and TheWrap reported the same two promotions.
With them, the repertory group is 10 people: Che, Jost, Padilla, Wickline, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Marcello Hernández, James Austin Johnson, Sarah Sherman and Kenan Thompson.
How long has Kenan Thompson been on SNL?
Season 52 is his 24th, which is the longest run any cast member has had. The record used to belong to Darrell Hammond, who was in the cast from 1995 to 2009. Hammond is still part of the broadcast in another way, since he has been the show's announcer since Season 40.
After Thompson, the longest-serving people in the cast are the two Update anchors, with Jost in his 14th season and Che in his 13th. Mikey Day is next at 11.
Quick questions
How many cast members does SNL have in Season 52? Seventeen on NBC's list, split into 10 repertory players and seven featured players.
Is Chloe Fineman still on SNL? No. She announced her exit in July 2026 and isn't on the Season 52 list.
The cast is only half of a given Saturday. For the guest side, see who is hosting SNL this week and the full Season 52 hosts and musical guests list. Our new-or-rerun page marks which Saturdays have a new episode, and how to watch SNL live covers NBC and Peacock. This page sits in the Cast section. Names here follow NBC's spelling, and corrections go to the address on the about page.
Sources · NBC Insider — the Season 52 cast list · TheWrap — SNL adds two cast members for Season 52 · NBC Insider — Saidah Belo-Osagie · NBC Insider — Grace Reiter · The Futon Critic — NBC listings for Saturday Night Live